Mind Linker Ch. 13

Marcus shot the first round, he was merciless at the enemy. The bullets hit squared in the forehead of the mechanical black dogs, causing them to fall forward and stop moving as they dissipated into smoke. Three more jumped over the downed dog, and bolted down the stairs.

Simon followed after, he leaned forward, and shot repeatedly at the oncoming dogs. Each one of his hits hit perfectly through the head or the body shot. Two more fell down, leaving one behind, and Marcus finished it off before it could even get to the bottom floor.

“Well, that wasn’t hard.” Timothy replied with a whistle. “I thought they would’ve put up a bit more fight.”

“Let’s not expect any more than this.” Jones replied worriedly. I heard the loud sound of the shotgun being pulled back to get the shell loaded as he waited.

We all waited, looking up at the only entrance that the demons were coming from. Every second felt like hours. The familiar sound clopping sound of the demon’s footsteps could be heard getting louder and louder. It was long, and dreadful to the point that all of us tensed up.

My hand rested on the hilt of the sword, ready to draw if need be. I gulped, trying to hold down my churning stomach. What was worse was I could taste the food that I ate this morning slowly rising up back in my throat. I had to hack it back down so I wouldn’t throw up. My body was tensed, and my fingers tapped the sheath in a rhythmic pattern uncontrollably.

I was a nervous wreck, but I knew that this was a fight for our lives. Looking over my shoulder, I saw three more still left to go before the six of us were next. Protecting the two Ouroboros waiting for their turn to fight wasn’t something I knew I could do, but I had to try. All I had was this suit and a sword that I could barely use, but even still I resolved in my heart to fight. There was no escape from this mess.

Wrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnggg. Pssssssssshhhh. The sound of a high pitch kettle echoed loudly, putting us all on edge. Our eyes were fixed on the demon boy walking in with one hand in the back of his pocket. In his other hand, he swung his yoyo in circles in an upbeat tune.

“I’m hungry. Are you my next meal?” The boy tilts his head to the side. He look down from the top towards us. I could feel the oppressive bloodlust and energy, seeping out of his body. All of us felt it, and we knew instantly that he wasn’t someone to just take lightly of.

The yoyo jumped out of his hand, slide across the rails, and shapeshifted into another black dog. This time without climbing down the stairs, it jumped off the rails and fell down with a loud thump.

I had to wonder how such a tiny toy could create something so large. It just completely defied logic, but when I took a closer look, I could see the thick coating of the black energy wrapped around the yoyo, swirling and forming into metal.

Crystal fired, but missed because of the zigzag motions that the dog was running. Then, as the dog got closer, she was able to destroy the head, which caused the dog to break down and become smoke.

An angry look on his face, this time seven more yoyo’s shifted into dogs by the boy demon, each one attempting to kill us by mauling us alive. Gunshots rang in rapid succession, as we tried to destroy as many of them as possible without any of them getting too close. Crystal and Jones barrage them with gunshots, leaving behind two.

One of them jumped forward towards Jones, its teeth baring angrily with a growl. He swiveled out of harm’s way at the last second, just as an ear shattering boom blew a large hole into the dog itself.

“Eat that bitch.” Jones racked the shotgun again and fired at the second one that was still running around in circles.

“I’m hungry.” The boy’s voice rang out clear, he started to walk down the stairs.

Marcus shot towards him, but a giant mechanical eagle appeared out of thin air, covering the boy’s body. “You’re kiddin’ me.” He muttered. With a grunt, he continued to shoot in the hopes to put the demon down.

“I see seven fresh souls to eat.” The boy giggled in glee in a high pitch creepy tone of voice that made my skin crawl. “Why don’t I bring out my friends to collect them.”

This time the boy demon threw out two yoyos at the same time, both of them sparking violently as they connected. I could tell at a glance that whatever the kid did with the yoyo’s was bad. The moment they connected, a horribly oppressive feeling that made my hair raise up in fear.

“What in the wor-” Jones mouth opened and closed, he lifted up his shotgun and let off a round. The bullet completely missed, the yoyo converged and started to take shape in mid flight. Large scaly feet, two short arms, a long tail that reminded me of a hammer, complete with a big snout with sharp teeth appeared all in one go in the shimmering black light. It was a freakin robotic looking T-Rex.

Large spikes decorated down its back, two green beady eyes glowed eerily down at us with hunger. With a roar, it blew our mind completely blank.

“A T.Rex?!” Timothy yelled in stupor.

“Oh for the love of god. This is just plain stupid!” Jones burst out in complete disbelief. “We got a dinosaur of all things. Why can’t it be a little old cat or maybe a freaking bird? I’ll even take something like a bull, but this? Huh? HUH?!” He fired his shotgun, the bullets shot through the leg, leaving behind a large hole.

“Nice~” Simon whistled. “That should slow it….. Shit, I take that back.”

The wound that Jones created started to close rapidly, leaving behind a fresh set of metallic skin.

A high piercing shout echoed loudly above us. I gazed up and stared in complete disbelief. Flying overhead was a black, robotic-looking Pterodactyl that resembled a bit of a wyvern. Sharp claws, long feathery tails, and rows upon rows of sharp teeth that could take a chomp out of our head with a single bite.

“You had to jinx us!” Timothy shouted pissed off at Jones. “You just had to say birds.”

“Hey, I was just joking!” Jones snapped back completely shocked in what he just saw. “It was just a slip of the lip, okay?!”

“No time for chit chatting, ladies!” Simon yelled. He dodged an attack by a hair’s breath by jumping into a diving roll. A T.Rex’s tail slammed down with a crashing thud, sweeping away at any tables and chairs in the vicinity. “We need to take it down now!”

“We’re working on it!” Timothy grumbled, he ran around it and continually fire.

Crystal followed behind, sending off her own barrage of bullets. I ran out of harm’s way from the bulldozing T.Rex. It’s giant foot slammed downwards, causing the ground to shake. None of the bullets were doing anything to the T.Rex, the entry and exit wounds were just did too little damage to cause anything serious. Only Jones’s shotgun was able to do anything to it, but any damage he did was just as quickly healed.

With loud fumbling steps, the T.Rex snapped downwards towards Crystal. She jumped out of harm’s way, her arm just inches away from getting her arm ripped off. The T. Rex beelined past her, crashing into the large amount of crates.

With an angry roar, it got back onto its feet and went into another full out charge. This time towards Marcus and Simon who was barraging it with bullets.

“Aim for its eyes!” Marcus shouted. He let out another blast, pulling the trigger as fast as he could.

With its ugly head, the T. Rex swooped downwards to take a bite out of Marcus’ head. Quickly diving under its belly, Marcus rolled out and twisted his body upwards, shooting at its belly. The T. Rex roared, stomping its feet angrily. Dashing out from under it, Marcus was able to get away from the T. Rex, before he was trampled.

Just as the T. Rex swung its tail around, I was unlucky and was near the T. Rex. I jumped upwards, dodging the tailwhip completely. When I landed, I was right behind the thick leg. My legs braced, I leaned forward and in one fluid motion, I pulled out the sword in my hand into one quick strike that I never thought was possible to do. The speed of the blade gave it the extra push that it needed as it cut deep behind the back of its leg.

What was even more surprising was the golden glow that covered my sword. . It seemed that my energy was empowering it. Dashing forward, the blade dug into its leg and sliced out the other end perfectly. With an angry roar, it fell downwards onto its side with a loud crash.

“Hell yea!” Timothy cried out in glee. “That’s what I’m talking about.” He fist pumped in the air. Then, just as suddenly, he stopped dancing and froze. His eyes slowly glazed over as his handgun dropped to his side.

“Tim?” Crystal saw the strange reaction of Timothy. She whipped her head towards the screen and saw Timothy number posted boldly in white with his name and picture. “Timothy been called! We need to protect him!”

All of us knew instantly what she meant. All the others gazed up towards the dome and saw what she had saw. Even I knew that this was a very bad time for him to zone out, but all we could do was protect his back.

“Keep him safe, Crystal! Leave the other two monsters to us!” shouted Marcus. He was battling the Pterodactyl that was swooping in low to catch him.

“Okay!” Crystal replied. She ran over towards him, covering his back as he walked towards the dome that was in the center of the room.

I, on the other hand, took an extra step forward towards the thrashing T.Rex on the ground. My blade was the closest thing to a real weapon we had, as it destroyed the T-rex much more efficiently than the guns everyone else had. Even though I wasn’t completely sure why, but I didn’t complain. Right now, my priority was to cut this monster into as many pieces as possible.

The T.Rex floundered around, as it tried to get back on its one leg. Its giant head swiveled around. It snapped at Jones, then tried to snap at me when I got too close. Raising my blade up to my side, I blocked the jaws just before it could take a bite out of my hand. With a powerful upper cut, the blade cut through its mouth.

With an angry roar, it thrashed around, causing the ground to shake. I wavered and almost lost balance. Luckily, I caught myself before I fell forward. Using its other leg, the T.Rex pushed itself around, causing it to go into a circle. Its large tail flailed left to right, completely destroying everything around it.

“We need to destroy it completely!” Jones shouted. His shotgun went off in a rhythmical beat as he poured all his bullets into its backside.

“I’m working on it!” I shouted. As I dashed to the side, a thundering slam of the T. Rex’s tail came crashing downwards in front of me like a whip, breaking a computer in half.

Even with its face partially cut in half, the T.Rex still didn’t give up in attempting to crushing us. It got back on its partially destroyed feet in a lopsided stance with half of its face falling apart. Then, it lowered its body, and took a couple steps forward. Viciously swinging its tail, the T.Rex moved too fast for me to jump out of harm’s way. With a vicious crushing noise, its tail impacted my chest, and I flew backwards into the crates.

“Alexus!” Jones cried out in shock. He pumped and fired, the bullet hit it on its face causing it to lurch backwards.

I groaned. My head couldn’t stop spinning, and my neck was cramped. Funny enough, the impact of the tail whip wasn’t as bad as when I got slammed unexpectedly with the yoyo. The few milliseconds of reaction time made the pain more bearable. Groaning, I pushed the crates out of the way and shook myself awake.

“Damn. How the hell did you survive that. You okay?” Jones replied stunned that I was still alive.

“Never better.” I grunted. “This suit absorbed half the impact.”

Jones whistled. “I need to get one of those.”

“Ask Crystal.” I wearily watched for the T.Rex tail. Its face was starting to heal itself all over again.

“I so am.” Jones fired off another shot, this time creating a large hole in its chest. Just then, before Jones were about to fire off another shot. He froze.

“Jones?” I called out, wondering why he suddenly stopped. His eyes glazed over, his shotgun fell down with a clatter. “Jones!”

The T.Rex wobbled sloppily with its stumpy leg towards him. I bolted across the room from where I was at and slammed into him with everything I had. We both fell with and tumbled to the side, the T. Rex’s mouth snapping downwards and missing where Jones was at by a hair. As it did, it lost its balance and fell forward onto the ground to its side. With a heavy thump, the ground shook as the T. Rex fell.

Quickly, I got on my feet, ran over towards T. Rex and jumped with the sword over my head. Throwing my weight towards it, I put everything I hard towards it neck, and soon heard the sound of my blade making contact with metal. Even still, the blade glowed like golden plasma and cut through its thick neck with one fluid cut. When the blade hit the ground, the T. Rex’s body started to distort and shimmer back into nothingness.

Two yoyo’s plop onto the ground and crumbled into fine dust, leaving behind nothing. I quickly got up, look around me, and ran back towards Jones, who were heading towards the dome.

Crystal ran over, her rifle in hand. “Is everything alright?”

“Yea, so far.” I replied, observing the battle between Marcus, Simon and the Pterodactyl.

Simon was literally riding on the back of the Pterodactyl like he was some kind of cowboy. His silver hair danced behind him, shimmering brightly like the wind. The Pterodactyl did a flying loop, but even still Simon didn’t even budge. He was glued to the back of the Pterodactyl as if it the whole ride was nothing.

Then I saw something glow around Simon’s handgun that I have never seen happen around anyone else. His hand had a thick condense of light red like energy that swirled around, eventually going into the gun itself. The whole handgun started to crystallize into ice, when he fired into the back of its spine. Rapidly freezing over, the bullet formed into a long spear, piercing through and out the other end.

Another shot was fired, and the Pterodactyl screamed, causing it to fumble out from the air. With a slam, it skidded across the ground. Marcus rushed in with glowing red fist, he pummeled his fist into the Pterodactyl. Metal crunched in on itself as it face caved in.

I was amazed at the two. Not only that they perfectly synchronized with one another, making this battle seem like the whole fight was nothing compare to what I went through.

“Alexus!” Crystal shouted, jarring me back to her and Jones. “Jones went in safely. Now it’s-”

Before she could finish what she was saying, her expression changed. I knew exactly who was next. This whole, glazing over and looking like a zombie wasn’t what I was looking forward too. I knew that it could get me killed if we didn’t get rid of the Myth type demon now.

I watched her drop her rifle onto the floor, she turned towards the dome. A metallic like sound could be heard and something appeared behind the bright light. It was a pod with soft interior lining, foggy glass opened, spilling out cool mist. She crawled into the pod and laid down. Her hand crossed in front of her, and she closed her eyes like she was sleeping.

Air escaped out of the pod as the glass closed, keeping her safe inside. Latin and foreign inscription that look like alien writing with symbols glowed on the glass. Then the pod sucked into the dome, closing behind it. I was left alone completely lost in what just happened.

The dome glowed bright, the next number was 66, Simon. With a heavy clunk of machinery moving inside, the next pod was brought forward and opened, waiting for Simon to come in.

When I turned my head, Simon wasn’t glazed eyed like the rest. I could still see the spark of life in him, battling against the pull to stay sane a bit longer.

“Go, dammit!” Marcus shouted towards Simon who slid off the back of the Pterodactyl. “I got this!”

With understanding, Simon look back one last time before Marcus and nodded. Instead, he headed straight towards my direction.

With a burst of flaming fire like energy, Marcus pounded into the Pterodactyl’s skull, crushing it in half. With a final struggle of its breath, the Pterodactyl shivered and turned into fine dust. He was sweating head to toe, looking as if he had the best workout in his life. Even his head was shiny from sweat.

I felt a swirl of power, coming from my right. I saw the demon boy, flaring with dark energy. His hand was raised up, and he flick the black infused yoyo towards Marcus.

“Marcus! Watch out!” I shouted.

Marcus turned around to late, the yoyo blasted towards him. He jumped backwards, but it still hit him against his shoulder, dislocating it completely out of place. He crumpled onto the ground with his hand on his shoulder, reeling back in pain.

Damn. Damn. Damn. I knew that this was a very bad time to get injured. There were only two of us who could fight against the demon, and we were running out of time. The clock was against us, and any moment now, Marcus or I could be next to be summoned into the Garden.

I ran forward towards the boy, the sword in my hand. With everything I had, I swung towards the side. The boy demon slowly turned around, his hand raised up, and the yoyo turned into a eagle. My blade made contact with the metallic eagle that blocked my path, black and gold sparks went off against each other. The gold pushing back the black with force, cutting through the thick black metal until the sword sliced through and cut a line down the rucksack.

It was then I saw an eerily green glowing eyes that stared back at me through the rucksack. The boy’s hand reached up, touching the rucksack a couple of times. His hand started to shake, and his body tensed as he just stood there frozen.

I took that chance to swivel the blade back around and sliced off the wing of the eagle. It half floundered as it fell and disappeared into smoke, leaving nothing behind, but the boy itself. When I attempted to cut him down a third time, a blast of invisible energy shot outwards, throwing me back into the air.

With a loud thump, I fell onto the ground and skidded across the floor to the wall. My mind was dazed and all I could think about was what just happened? One minute I was trying to cut the demon down, the next minute I was looking up at the ceiling. How many times would I be thrown around like a rag doll until these demons would be satisfied? It was getting old fast, and I was kissing the ground way too many times.

“Argh!” Marcus yelled out in pain, startling me back out of the daze.

I rolled over towards my stomach, and I saw him put back his dislocated shoulders into place. He stumbled forward, but caught himself before he fell face first. Just the thought of hearing the click of his shoulders going back in place made me shudder. The pain that comes with something like that is no joke and it wasn’t something I wanted to go through anytime soon.

“You alright?” I called out towards him.

“Never better.” Marcus grunted. He shakily got up, and look over his shoulder towards Simon. Simon was getting into the pod, and ready to be brought in the Garden. “We need to stay near the Garden!”

I nodded understanding what he meant. One of us was going to be called in any second now, and being far away from it wasn’t a good idea. The problem was that the boy was in between us and the Garden making this a very annoying predicament.

“I’m hungry! I’m hungry! I’m hungry! Why can’t you just stay still!” The boy yelled at the top of his lungs pissed off at how we were making this difficult.

A swirl of black energy escaped out of the rucksack, flowing downward like a waterfall. The boy started to grow, its arm becoming long and lanky. His skin was covered in partial boils, zits, and bad acne, but what made it worse was the tips of his fingers were black as it spiraled upwards as if he had some kind of disease. He wasn’t a boy anymore, but a young man. His clothes were the same, and even how he walked and talked changed.

His voice cracked like any young males that was going into puberty. “I’m hungry, so today, you’ll fork over your souls.” He rubbed his flat belly. Black energy continually fall out from the rucksack, covering half of his body. Devilish claws the length of his forearm, appeared at the tips of his fingers. Even the sound of his clothes, ripping from his back could be heard as black spikes aligned his spines.

“Get ready to run for i-” Marcus went silent.

I snapped my head towards him, and groaned. Of all the time to go zombie like, why now?! Why now?! I wanted to throw my sword down in frustration, but I didn’t. Right now there was a Myth type demon, and he was between us and the Garden. Our percentage of Marcus making past the demon unscathed was really low, but what could I do, but use what I got to help him make it there. With my fingers wrapped tightly around my sword, I slightly leaned forward ready to run towards the demon.